8 February 2001 Edition

``Now you've got a good government keep it'' This was the election slogan used by Fine Gael in the 1977 Leinster House elections. Fine Gael didn't win the election. In fact, Fianna Fáil romped home with their largest ever majority. They had campaigned with a much slicker package of promises and give aways, including the undeliverable twin pledges of spending more while taxing less. Free article

A Dublin friend rang the other night to say that he had just been to the most depressing public meeting in his life. It was organised by the Irish Republican Writers Group (IRWG), ostensibly to mark the 20th anniversary of the hunger strike, but didn't. No plans were announced on how to honour the ten dead men, but another public meeting was announced for Belfast. Free article

Ten years ago, Michael Lapsley, an Anglican priest who for many years travelled the world fighting apartheid, received a letter bomb hidden between the pages of two religious magazines. South African government agents had sent it. Fr Lapsley suffered horrific injuries, losing both hands and an eye. For him, this was the beginning of a journey that led him to establish the Institute for Healing of Memories. Free article

H-BLOCK/ARMAGH ACTION Committees throughout Ireland, in America, in Europe and Australia have just three weeks left before a second major hunger strike by protesting republican prisoners commences in British jails in the occupied North. Free article